Beyonce is Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover girl

The cover of the yearly Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition is a highly coveted coup normally reserved for some supermodel of the moment. This year SI went with celebrity Beyonce. This is really interesting because SI is following the footsteps of the fashion magazines, for whom awhile now, are gracing their covers with celebrities instead of supermodels.

From a marketing standpoint, the move makes sense to me because the general public is more aware of celebrities than models, and younger women and girls are more apt to want to emulate celebs like Scarlett Johanssen, Keira Knightley, or Beyonce. When more people know the face, then magazine sales go up. It's all about the moolah folks.

In this SI 2007 swimsuit issue, the theme is music, so instead of having athletes cavorting with the other bikini clad hotties, you'll see the likes of Kanye West, Aerosmith, Gnarls Barkely, Kenny Chesney, Panic at the Disco, and even legend Jimmy Buffet. Oh yes, they have every age and genre of music covered here. There's even some pictures taken at the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

So, I think the music theme is cool, but SI is a sports magazine, and the feature should always be the athletes or the sport, and the music celebs have taken over this issue, in my humble opinion. In general, I have never been crazy about the swimsuit issue because, when placed in the context of a sports magazine, it makes gawking at half naked women a sport. In Maxim, the bikini stuff makes sense (although I'm not crazy about that pub either) but in Sports Illustrated, I think it's just a crafty way to get magazine sales.